Inspirational Woman: Sonu Sandhu | Artist, Sonu Sandhu Art

Sonu Sandhu was born in 1975 in New Delhi. Her works have been selected for various international exhibitions like Florence Art Biennale X edition and London Biennale to name a few.

She holds a three yrs Diploma in Fine Arts from Delhi, Diploma in graphic designing & Anatomy and a certificate in mixed media and fine arts from Central Saint Martins College, UAL, London. Certificate in film making from IMI, Pune

Sandhu’s paintings embody and describe the positive stream of energies. There is a sense of depth in her artworks and the flowing material intrigues the onlooker to dig into a plethora of perspectives. It took her years to develop her unique style only to realize that just an analysis of the myriad thoughts that flow through our subconscious and conscious mind; enable us to create that energy. She takes inspiration from the world around her, her experiences and explorations being the greatest of them all.

Her curiosity towards the existence of mankind predominantly reflects in her works. Various constituents and textures form a distinctive and experimental form of art.

Selected by All India Fine Arts and crafts society 2011, she was awarded The Special mention for excellence at London Biennale 2015. She has also been nominated for The Global Art Awards Dubai 2017, participated in various solo and group exhibitions at The Canadian and Spanish embassies and AIFACS, Lalit Kala Academy, New Dehli.

She has directed and edited three short films on YouTube, and directed a documentary on Randeep Hooda Equestrian and Polo Academy Gurgaon.

Tell us about yourself…

I am a Gurgaon based visual artist and a freelance filmmaker.

I won’t add homemaker to it because I believe every woman is honored with that designation in one way or the other.

Having been born as a girl child in a conventional Indian joint family was not always a blessing back then. Independently pursuing a career almost felt like a dream.

A family with an ostentatious background came with it’s own baggage of restrictions for the longest time. Even though I channelized my creative capabilities by studying graphic designing and fashion designing alongside my college, it failed to go in a specific direction since the doors to the outside world were purposely shut. Hence, marriage right after graduation was inevitable. It was then that my actual interaction with the real world happened.

Only outside the cocoon did my future come calling. Extensive travelling, independent stewardship, right to throw in my opinions were a few of the gifts bestowed upon me by my nonorthodox and progressive husband. My real inclination towards art admittedly, was the outcome of my deep interest in my surroundings, human psychology and experiences of life that resulted from the independence that I got as an individual.

I deeply wanted to cultivate my passion for art and the most genuine way to do that was to give it depth and substance. The only way I thought I could make them tangible was to bring them on a platform. Anything and everything around me started to allure me, in fact always stayed in my subconscious. I was as eager to explore as a child. My thoughts and expressions got a comprehensible platform.

Age can never be a hindrance if we really want to achieve something. Passion is the real virtue. Be it the birth of my children or bedecking my nest, my endeavor to do everything passionately was always conspicuous.

This led to more encouragement from my family that ensued in gaining further education in the field of Arts from an Art college for three years followed by an advanced course in the field of Mixed media from University of Arts London.

I practically started my education at the age of 35 years, right from travelling for my studies to exhibiting my works both internationally and back home. I didn’t just stop there. My creative instincts took me to learning film making from Institute of moving images in Pune.

Juggling between my motherly duties, household responsibilities and my studio kept my calendar busy which somewhere within gave me a sense of achievement because by the end of the day all these were and have always been not just my priorities but my passions too.

Tell us about any current projects or initiatives you wish to promote.

This year has been quite eventful. From my artworks being showcased as prints on the menu cards of a Peruvian restaurant by the name of Nueva in Delhi to being nominated by The Global Art Awards Dubai, the result of which is solely dependent on public voting. As a filmmaker, I got this wonderful opportunity to make a documentary film on actor Randeep Hooda’s Polo & Equestrian academy in Gurgaon, which has been uploaded on You Tube as well. I’m working on a documentary on Banaras for which I need to approach a few production companies and also, on a promotional film for an export house in Gurgaon.

I’m striving on bringing my father’s archaic interior brand name back to the market that shall be having my artworks on display as well.

What has been your biggest challenge in achieving your success?

A combination of the ticking biological clock, family responsibilities, a delayed beginning, time management, lack of professional experience and initial repression, did act as an obstacle at times but was invariably overpowered by constant perseverance. Multi tasking at all times does take away the pleasure many a times and adds to it the guilt of neglecting the family, which wouldn’t have been the case earlier. The world is competitive I agree, but rapids are always more fun than placid surfaces.

What has been your greatest achievement personally?

Having won an award for Excellency in the field of art at the London Biennale can be considered a little bit of an achievement as an artist but as an individual, having earned the rights to be opinionated and steering my life as per my own wish, bringing up my two children into responsible and optimistic human beings has been my greatest achievement so far.

If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing?

It gives me a sense of pride in admitting that now; I am fortunately doing whatever I have always hankered after so there seems no other alternative but my industrious nature is always open to more creative and experimental destinations on my way forward. The only activity that I would like to get into later in my life apart from Art should be organic farming on a larger scale that I am really passionate about.

What has been your biggest inspiration?

May be a few years back a clichéd answer to this would have been a certain personality’s name but now if you ask me then definitely I would say the younger generation of today. I have actually always been inspired by the youngsters who know what the verb focused mean in the real sense of the word. Be it any field, sports, education, technology, theatre and for that matter even social services to name a few, they are hands-on to that. I am astounded to see how passionate they are not just about their careers but their health too. If I can be half as down the line as they are, my creative vibrations won’t know an end. To top the list definitely is Mark Zuckerberg .

What does the future hold for you?

I have got to a certain place in my life because of my belief that we should follow our passion with complete dedication. I shall continue doing the same and aim towards more experimental and creative upshots in the art field paralleling it with a constant broadening of horizons. My inclination towards scriptwriting and filmmaking hopefully will take a desired route. Rest, had we known what future holds for us then life wouldn’t have been as interesting. We should just focus our endeavors and be persistent until gratified.

Ashish Bhardwaj is based in New Delhi. Ashish is a Management Graduate and has worked with a number of leading Indian companies.
Ashish works tirelessly to connect with and interview Indian women across India and abroad and is proud to be actively involved in empowering Indian women. His interests are reading, networking and football and his favourite team is Argentina where he hopes to visit one day!